This
is PART VI covering my 3D Design work I did for the Theatrical
Advertising done on Dreamworks 3D animated feature, Monsters vs. Aliens
from back in the Late Fall of 2008, and today I have more details on the city backdrop I made for the Theatrical Title as seen in my reel linked to the RIGHT.

I was called in to assist the Motion Graphics department in building out about six blocks of a stylized city that was similar to the screen cap reference we had at the time for the film Monsters vs' Aliens.

It needs to be noted that I was competing against another company that was attempting to get the finish on the trailer as well and they had a team of almost a dozen I had to go against. As a 3D Designer, I modeled and designed simultaneously and this alone allowed us to design and build so much faster, that in just 12 Hours, I had the city finished completed on a weekend when it was given to me to do.

I first built out a blocking model with the building proportions and placement done with simple boxes. I also put taller background buildings off the the sides and checked the perspective parallax as the camera moved thru this little city.

Once the move and timing was all set, I began a assembly line build-out for the two dozen unique buildings I designed and built for the city. I also then created all the various little items on the street from the store outdoor signs, to fire hydrants, to newspaper vending sets, and awning and power poles.

I was given a good budget and my portion came in at less than one fifth the projected cost[ NOT projected by me the 3D Design Department head BTW].

You can view the MGFX city I built in just over a day for the trailers in PART I here,
You can view the full 3D logos here for PART II.
You can view Part III with more 3D Logos here.
You can view PART IV here with added button logos.
You can view PART V here covering the color adjustments for Stereoscopic 3D-SS.

You can also see the final 3D Animation of the Title at the front of my MGFX reel work in the right column link.

This shield prop represents the other side of that spectrum where all is needed is a simple or small prop rendered out, and in the case of Frank Millers Three-Hundred[ 300], they wanted a 3D shield made for various areas online.

I built this so it could be displaced as the film prop was a rough item , hand made so I did what I had time for in the fast turn around to get close to what was needed.

Also this was to be small, around 400 pixels wide, so I rendered it at 2X size [ 800 pixels wide] as the renders were fast at about 5 minutes even with the Darksim procedurals and Final Render dirt shaders which take more time to go, but deliver much better results.

I usually will go 2X[cubed in surface area] in final render size if the client can afford it, as the file is bigger in case their client wants to see it larger, so they don't need to come back for more renders from me.

This was a 2 hour job, fast and typical for something like this. I delivered four renders at a modest 800 pixels width with an alpha channel [ 32 bit TGA file]so they could Flash-Animate them[ in 2D] and drop them into the various online pages needed.

In 05' I was running my department of one in-house at The Cimarron Group, and my main clients were the other six divisions of the company, and I was approached by the Corporate Advertising branch to help with some style frames for a presentation they were making to Saleen Motors, famous for their super-cars as well as the conversions they do the the Ford Mustang.

I had helped them acquire the Lotus cars account a few years back with my virtual model of the ELISE before they were here in the US market, so it was a fun fit.

I built out a 3D version of their logo and built out a carbon fiber background plate that we could us for the Motion Graphics and print work we did to pitch them.

I rendered out a series of shots as seen above and they took them to pitch the company. Unfortunately at the time they were on the verge of a restructure so we did not get to seal the deal, though I did get to create some fun style frames in the process.

This is PART II covering the work I did a decade ago now while in house at BLT Communications out in Hollywood for the film Timeline, and for this second part I cover the material texture work I did in finding a material for the helmets used in the One-sheet presentations.

I used Darksims Dark Tree editor sorftware to adjust and use shaders from the Simbiont Max plug in. Once the mesh was ready to go, I did a variety of pases of various materisla from copper to lead some new, and some aged.

Once the project was done, a new plug in for my renderer Final Render came out with a Dirt Shader, and I did a little experimenting with that, as seen above using the SimbiontProcedural Shaders as well.

You can dial in and out the total amount of aging you desire, and for jobs like this I will typically render a few passes at various levels so the Art Director can paint between a few version to get the right ammount of scuff where they want it, as this method gives them total control.

I
was asked to help create a 3D illustration for a new Home Entertainment One-sheet promoting the Studio Classics from the FOX collection, as they were re-releasing a series of older movies on Blue-Ray Disc and wanted to promote the launch using the iconic FOX marque in the design.

This build only used a few base parts from the marque, along with the specific lights, and I built out a neon and bulb based marque topper with a big reel of old-school 35mm film as the main item sitting on the big cement base.

I delivered it with a brighter red neon and more tin and steel up top at first, but then we moved to the lighter yellow bulbs with some added cool blue neon around the film reel as well as around the base sign area. I also adjusted the colors over to the warmer cement colors from the existing logo.This finished out and I rendered it at 5000 pixels tall for the final 3D Illustration I delivered.

I rendered this in multiple layers with and without the type, as well as with and without the volumetric lights, so that Cheryl's team could paint as needed to use the 3D asset for the Key Art finals both online and in print media. A fun 10 Hr job.

This
is PART V covering my 3D Design work I did for the Theatrical
Advertising done on Dreamworks 3D animated feature, Monsters vs. Aliens
from back in the Late Fall of 2008, and today I have to review the variations on the final logo that were done for the various applications.

We had to produce the 3D main title I built out for the Theatrical trailer in stereoscopic 3D for a few 3D delivery systems and each had some color issues.

One version, done for a 3D television system was for the super bowl that year, and it had orange and green lenses, so we needed to address the fact that the logo was orange and green and would have issues, so we experimented with variations using blues and colder metal colors to get a better 3D effect.

I also had to drop the logo into a film clip and I colorized and reflected the scene itself into the logo and this toned the textures to fit the shot colors and lighting.

The logo design itself was finalized at Dreamworks in 2D, but I reproduced the look as a real 3D asset including the cuts into the metal "Alien" type which was a 2D fake in the scrap, though I chose to cut the part-lines into the type itself.

BabelFish Universal Translator Widget

About Me

Trained in Transportation Design at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design, I have worked for the past 24 years in every facet of Entertainment Design as Conceptual Designer, up to Design Director. I am currently running my design studio full time out of my home in Littleton, CO.
In the past, I have orchestrated teams as large as 100 on an international level , and as small as a few artists. Art Center gave me the formal training in Industrial Design via sketching and modeling to execute my designs.
The variety within the Entertainment Industry that I have been involved with includes: Television Commercial Set Design, 2D Animation Television Series, Restaurant Design and Illustration, Real Time 3D Interactive Gaming, Online 3D Web interface, CD ROM Magazine Design, Theme Park Attraction Design, and finally ending up in Entertainment based Advertising for Theatrical Films.
I have experience starting up both 2D, and 3D design departments, as well as moving into existing studio infrastructures of operation and working within established systems already in place.